Standing up to a challenging climate

Stella and her neighbors in Kenya struggled for years to farm in an increasingly unpredictable climate. Now, Stella’s family and her community are learning to increase their resilience and face these challenges head on.

Drissa’s land returns to life

Drissa Banihou, a farmer in Burkina Faso, West Africa, thought his land was dead. The 10 acres he had farmed since childhood had borne no crops in five years because of drought conditions. This year, his family produced 80 tons of sesame.

Areas of Expertise

Youth

Lutheran World Relief recognizes the importance of implementing positive youth development programming that directly addresses both under-employment and unemployment, while also providing youth an opportunity to engage in relevant agriculture value chains.

Young men and women need to be given equal opportunity to earn a predictable income that provides enough for their basic needs. Equitable access to sustainable income and information technologies for youth is a key objective of our continuing work towards building fair and profitable livelihoods.

Today there are nearly 2 billion people between the ages of 12 and 24 worldwide, the largest number in recorded history. About nine out of 10 of these young people live in less developed countries. The need to address the needs of youth couldn’t be clearer.

When youth are empowered to fully engage in productive economic activity and decision-making at the household, community, and government level, their contributions have the potential to exponentially grow their local economies. Societies with greater gender equity and rural employment opportunities for youth experience higher agricultural productivity, improved food security, and more robust development in general.

Lutheran World Relief is committed to promoting youth in a variety of ways in our programs, including:

Providing on-going training to Lutheran World Relief staff in HQ and in the field on gender and youth integration

Lutheran World Relief Youth Initiatives

Uganda

El Salvador

Indonesia

The Sustainable Enterprises for Equitable Development (SEED) project in Uganda supports youth entrepreneurs in establishing small agriculture input businesses in rural communities, providing local farmers with inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. The certified youth extension agents also offer services to local farmers, including chemical application, harvest and processing, and collective marketing.

In El Salvador, where young people face daily dangers of violent gang activity and intense pressures to migrate, Lutheran World Relief launched a diploma program designed to prepare young people to be the next generation of entrepreneurs in the country’s burgeoning cocoa industry. The Diploma in Cocoa Management program — offered at the Universidad de Oriente, known locally as UNIVO — integrates training in cocoa cultivation, business management and life skills. More than 100 students have graduated from the program.

In Indonesia, we are helping young people to see coffee production as a viable profession through specialized training in both on-farm management and off-farm entrepreneurship in the profitable Indonesian coffee industry. The Beyond-the-Farm entrepreneurial opportunities include helping to operate a café in various roles (barista, roaster, quality grader, managerial and hospitality), selling roasted high-quality beans to local markets, hotels or other potential buyers, and the potential for developing agritourism.